In the manufacture of throughdried tissue products, such as facial and bath tissue and paper towels, there is always a need to improve the properties of the final product. While improving softness always gets much attention, stretch is a property that is important in regard to the perceived durability and toughness of the product. As the stretch increases, the tissue sheet can absorb tensile stresses more readily without rupturing. Improved sheet flexibility machine direction stretch (MD stretch) at levels of about 15% are easily achieved by creping, for example, but the resulting cross-machine direction stretch (CD stretch) is generally limited to levels of about 8 percent or less due to the nature of the tissue making process.
Hence there is a need for increasing the flexibility and the CD stretch of throughdried tissue products while maintaining or improving other desirable tissue properties.